DUP backs Peter Robinson despite wife's scandal

Members of the Democratic Unionist Party have backed their under pressure
leader Peter Robinson following calls for his resignation over the scandal
involving his wife Iris.

Golden girl: Iris Robinson with her husband PeterPhoto: Rex Features

1:44PM GMT 11 Jan 2010

Senior party figures emerged from private discussions in Stormont's Parliament Buildings to declare their support for Mr Robinson, securing his position as leader and as First Minister.

Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds, flanked by party faithful including former leader the Rev Ian Paisley, said they had resisted pressure from the media and their political opponents to ditch Mr Robinson.

Mr Dodds said: ''The Democratic Unionist Party officers, Assembly Group, Parliamentary Party and European Member, and in due course there will be a meeting of the party Executive, unanimously agreed despite attempts by members of the press and our political opponents to press the Rt Hon Peter Robinson to resign as party leader - we offer him our wholehearted support and our desire for him to remain in office as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.''

Mr Robinson has been facing calls for his resignation after a TV documentary claimed he failed to report his wife Iris to the parliamentary authorities for obtaining loans for her toyboy lover to run a Belfast cafe.

The DUP leader has said he has done nothing wrong and had told his wife, who is now said to be receiving acute psychiatric treatment from the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, to pay back the loans.

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Today's DUP decision comes in defiance of the major political damage caused after the Robinsons were plunged into crisis when it emerged that Mrs Robinson had secured £50,000 from two wealthy developers to help her 19-year-old lover Kirk McCambley set up the restaurant business in south Belfast.

The DUP decision does not end the political controversy and, while there is speculation that the party might have to take further action to defuse tensions, Sinn Fein has already tabled an urgent Assembly question about the Robinson controversy.

Mr Robinson is set to address the Assembly this afternoon to deal with the concerns of other members of the administration.

The British and Irish Governments are concerned at the wider political significance of the affair, with fears that a weakened DUP may be unlikely to agree to republican demands for agreement on the transfer of policing and justice powers to the Assembly.

Republicans are keen to see progress on devolving policing and justice powers from London to Belfast as their price for remaining in government.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has sought answers on whether Assembly rules were breached after Mr Robinson failed to report his wife to the parliamentary authorities for obtaining the loans.

But Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has said the focus needs to be on the wider issue of salvaging the political process.

He said: "The failure of the DUP to fulfil its political commitments and work the political institutions, as it agreed, on the basis of partnership and equality, has led to a considerable lack of public confidence in the political institutions."